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🎙️ Welcome to a new episode of The Corporate Venturing Podcast!
Why do so many corporate innovation programs struggle? Not because of a lack of ideas, but because their internal culture isn’t ready to embrace them!
In this episode, I sit down with Mar Serra, Global Lead for Product Application at Nestlé (and former head of Nestlé Accelerator in Lausanne), and Benjamin Lickfett, Global VP of Breakthrough Innovation at Diageo, to explore how to build internal cultures that truly support external ideas.
Together, we dive into the real challenges (and the practical solutions) for creating openness inside large organizations:
🌍 The cultural clash between corporate scale and startup agility
⚡ Why innovation fails without the right structures, incentives, and psychological safety
🛠️ Concrete tactics: accelerators, mentorship, reverse mentoring, hackathons, and “celebrating the kill”
👥 Spotting and developing the right internal champions (because innovation isn’t for everyone)
📐 How to adapt governance and processes (like Diageo’s Ignite model) to move at startup speed
🚀 Maintaining momentum once pilot hype fades—turning wins and failures into long-term belief in innovation
🎯 Securing leadership alignment without slowing everything down
💡 Why Return on Learning is as important as ROI
Both Mar and Benny share candid lessons from Nestlé and Diageo: two global giants learning to balance core business discipline with entrepreneurial freedom.
And we close on a personal note: the most rewarding transformations they’ve witnessed: individuals and teams returning from innovation programs with new confidence, resilience, and mindsets that ripple across the company.
If you’re building corporate innovation teams or trying to spark cultural change inside your organization, this episode is packed with practical wisdom and hope that it is possible.
Resources:
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